The Promise
by CloveEngland
Summary: Max and Fang were best friends when they were little, and she made a promise to him that he didn't think she could keep. As the years passed, Fang started doing bad things, and their friendship was severed. But when Fang is in danger, will Max be able to keep her promise? And even if she does, will their friendship die or be reborn? Rated T for... well you'll know if you read.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Max

"_Fang…" she said softly as they sat together in a tree. They were both 9 years old, neighbors and best friends. She took his hand in hers, smiling, and looked at the setting sun. He looked at her as the sun set and she looked at him. He was so… cute. He had long dark hair that was brushed neatly to one side. His eyes, if possible, were even darker, with flecks of gold and brown in them. He had lightly tanned skin and almost never smiled- which was what made Max feel so lucky to be his friend. _

_Whenever they were together, he smiled._

_Max looked back at the sunset and leaned on his shoulder. "Fang," she said again, "I want to vow something to you." He looked at her. Max sighed. She knew he probably wasn't prepared for this. He probably thought it was a usual thing, like 'I promise to pay you back that nickel I owe you.' Taking a deep breath she continued. "I don't want to be the Damsel in Distress, like in princess stories. I want to promise you something I'm sure no other girl would ever promise. Whenever you're in trouble or danger, I promise I'll be there for you. I'll take a bullet for you."_

_Fang stared at her. What she just said was completely random, completely out of the blue. She knew it. She knew Fang knew. She heard his voice and could tell from the tone that he hadn't expected it- she didn't think he would expect it. "W-what do you mean? Max, for one thing, that was totally pointless, and for another, there's no way you can keep that promise."_

"_But it wasn't pointless." She replied. "You know how Gazzy di…"her voice trailed off and the words caught in her throat at the thought of another of her close friends who'd died in a fire a few months ago. Fang nodded, as though telling her that she needn't finish that thought. She nodded as well and said, "Well, I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I wasn't there for him. I can't let somebody die like that again, especially not you." _

_She felt heat rising to her cheeks as she spoke these words. She liked Fang a lot. He knew she liked him, but she still felt slightly nervous and embarrassed when she brought it up. "I just feel like I need to promise you this. I can't lose another friend and not be there to help." Fang nodded and said, "Same to you."_

Fang

_Fang nodded and said, "Same to you." It was only half-hearted though. They were only nine, and this was totally out of the blue. He didn't think there was any possible way she could keep that promise, and he didn't think she'd try. However, it sort of unnerved him at how serious she'd been when she said it. What if she really meant it?_

_He had looked away from her but he suddenly looked back at her. She was staring at where the sun had just set, tears silently streaming down her face. He was sure it was because of speaking about Gazzy. He put his arm around her shoulders, allowing her to lean against him, suppressing the urge to scream, "EW! SHE HAS COOTIES!" _

_He soon realized that she had fallen asleep, snuggled against his chest. Sighing, he gently shook her. She jumped and said, "Oh, um, sorry." Fang nodded and said, "I was just going to say we should go home. Our parents won't be happy with us being outside so late." Max nodded and jumped down from the tree with Fang following._

_Fang waved to her as he went to the right to his house as she went to the left to hers. She waved back and he noticed that she wouldn't look him in the eye like she usually did. He assumed she was just tired and went inside, brushing off that night's events and falling asleep._


	2. Chapter1: School

**Chapter 1: School**

_Max_

Max walked into the school, keeping her head down and avoiding everyone else. She went to her locker and got her books, quickly and quietly walking to her first period classroom. When she got there she sat down and saw Nudge sitting in front of her. She smiled. Nudge was a chatterbox and Max was the exact opposite, but they were best friends. They say opposites attract, right?

Nudge looked over her shoulder smiling and said, "Hey Max! So I was thinking how cool it would be to start a talent or fashion show here! Wouldn't that be so cool? Zomg, if we had a fashion show, imagine all the crazy outfits there'd be! What if somebody made an elephant costume? I like elephants. I don't get why some people think elephants are ugly. Do you? I mean yeah they're wrinkly but it's cute! Don't you think it's cute, Max? I do. I think it is. Puppies are cute too. I love puppies. We might be getting one when we move into the new house from our apartment. I'm so excited! I love puppies! I love Scotties the most, but I also love golden retrievers and Australian shepherds and Yorkshire terriers and black labs and yellow labs and chocolate labs!"

Right after she said that Max slapped a hand over her mouth and said, "Nudge." She nodded in understanding. Max smiled and said, "Good morning, Nudge." Nudge just grinned; she knew better than to start blabbing again. She turned around in her seat when the teacher came in along with Fang, Dylan, and Sam. Max sighed inwardly and her heart broke again. In the past few years, Fang had changed immensely. They were innocent best friends. Innocent… the word ran through her mind. Yes, they were innocent. Then when they were fourteen he joined one of the worst gangs of the city and started getting drunk underage a lot.

It hurt to see him like that. She remembered when he'd first gotten drunk. They were fifteen. He'd gone out and came back. Max had seen him come back and went over to see if he wanted to hang out for a bit. He'd called her a worthless piece of crap and had slapped her hard. His nail had cut the side of her face and she still had a scar there. It was a reminder of why she hated him now and why he hated her. She'd often get very mad at Fang when she saw him… but then she'd remember the promise she made. Remind herself that she could never be mad at Fang. She refused to be mad at him. If she got mad at him she might not help him if he was in danger.

She'd break her promise then.

Dylan smirked at her as he passed and Max felt sick to her stomach. Once a few months ago, Dylan had dragged her to the bathroom after school and tried to rape her. She'd gotten away, being the bad-ass person that she was, but the thought of him touching her again sent shivers down her spine. She was sure he would try again eventually. Max saw Fang notice Dylan's smirk and follow it until he was looking at her. She heard him mutter, "Dylan, you don't want the teacher to catch you being perverted. You might get a detention." Dylan shrugged and walked to his seat. Max saw Fang's eyes soften at her for a moment, then harden again and he sat down.

Max zoned out after that, playing with her pencil as opposed to listening to her history teacher blabber on about the civil war. Or whatever. It was some war that America went through and the outcome was good. America's just cool like that. They won a bazillion wars. That's America's history in a nutshell. When class was over she went out quickly. She didn't want to have to put up with Dylan or Sam.

She went to her locker without a problem, but as she was turning she noticed Dylan standing in front of her. She groaned inwardly. He put his hands on either side of her, trapping her against the lockers. "What do you want?" she growled. He grinned. "You know what I want, Maximum. And I will get it." She rolled her eyes. "You're path-," she broke off when Dylan moved his hands down and reached around, grabbing her butt. She did was Max does best- she kneed him in the stomach, causing him to stagger backwards, and punched him hard in the face.

"Pervert!" she snapped, eyes narrowed. Dylan's eyes flared and he leaped up, pushing her to the ground. He straddled her waist and punched her over and over in the face. When her face was too bloody to really see, he stood up and started kicking her continuously. She curled up, gritting her teeth in pain. Then the kicking stopped. "Dude," Fang said, "Cut it out. You're going to get in trouble." Dylan snarled, "So? That whore deserved it!" Max heard Sam, her ex-boyfriend say, "Really. Dylan, you've gone too far this time. She's losing a lot of blood."

She heard Dylan growl and heard his feet as he stalked off. "What do we do with her?" Sam said. "We can't take her to the nurse. She'll question us." Sam said, "We could tell her that Max slipped and fell, and then I accidentally tripped over her face and she's pretty banged up now." "That could work…" Fang said, agreeing.

Max then felt hands lift her up. She was aware of tears running down her cheeks and she rolled her eyes behind her closed eyelids. 'Gosh Max, where's the Maximum Batchelder everyone knows and hates? You need to toughen up.' She took a deep, shuddery breath as quietly as she could and forced the tears to stop flowing. Then she relaxed in Fang and Sam's grip.

_Fang_

'Smooth, Dylan. Real smooth,' Fang thought, feeling annoyance creep in on him. Dylan just _had _to choose that day of all days to try and do it with Maximum-freaking-Batchelder. And of course, end up beating her up, because God knows Max would never _ever _let anyone do that kind of thing to her without a fight. A thought went through Fang's head. 'Today of all days. If anyone finds out… oh, gosh, we can't afford to get detentions today. We have business to attend to.'

Fang sighed and looked down at Max. He was about to look up to go into the nurse's office when he noticed something that confused and surprised him. Max had tear stains on her face. Confusion took over all shock. Max NEVER cried. Fang knew that better than anyone. After all, they were neighbors and had known each other since they were 7, and they were now 16.

Basically, the main thing that was going through Fang's head was Max + Tear Stains = what?

He looked up, still baffled, and helped open the door and carry Max through. "Goodness!" He heard the nurse say as she ran over. "What on earth happened?" she gasped. Sam put on a fake guilty-face that, if Fang wasn't Sam's best friend, he would've bought, and said, "She slipped and fell, and I didn't see her so I accidentally tripped and kicked her face. She got pretty banged up too; everyone was rushing to get to their classes."

The nurse nodded and said, "Lay her on one of the beds… I'll see what I can do. Hopefully you didn't kick her too hard." She shot a sort of joking glare at Sam, but still looked a little serious too. She got a rag, a bowl of water and soap, and a first aid kit and began working on cleaning off the blood.

After a few minutes, Sam muttered to Fang, "I'm going to class. I'll explain to the teacher why we're both late. Don't be too long Fang, I'm sure the nurse knows what she's doing, and as you kept saying to Dylan- we can't afford detention today." Fang nodded and listened to the door creaking as Sam walked out.

Fang watched and then the nurse straightened up. "Will she be ok?" Fang asked. The nurse nodded. "She's pretty badly bruised, and might have a broken nose, but I think that's it." Fang nodded and said, "Ok, good... at least it's not that bad…" The nurse smiled and said, "Exactly. You go to class now, don't want to get in trouble with your teacher." Fang nodded and left, walking down the hallway in silence.

He felt weird. He hated Max. Max hated him. So why did he feel like he cared about her? He was very confused. He felt as though Max was his girlfriend, and that he had to go back. He didn't like the feeling; he didn't love her. Did he? He shook his head. Bad thoughts, Fang, bad thoughts!

Sighing, Fang wondered for a moment if it was because he had never gotten over how their friendship had ended, with him getting drunk underage and hitting her. A friendship should never end that way, right? So maybe he just felt guilty for that.

Shaking off the thoughts, he entered his classroom and listened to the teacher's boring voice echoing off the walls of the room. The rest of the day was uneventful, other than Max showing up for the last two periods with a white bandage on her nose. But he'd expected that, since it was supposedly badly bruised and only possibly broken.

After school, Fang rushed outside, Dylan and Sam behind him, with a smirk on his face. He and the Gang which consisted of him, Dylan, Sam, and a boy named Iggy, would be doing something unimaginable. Something… probably stupid, but Fang didn't care. It'd be _fun,_ in a twisted, dark kind of way.

They were going to start a shooting.


	3. Chapter2: The Bullet

**Chapter 2: The Bullet**

_Max_

Max felt a pain in her face as the nurse cleaned off the blood that covered it. She heard Sam leave and heard Fang ask if she'd be ok, then he left too, and she was alone with the nurse. She looked at the nurse and mumbled, "Is my nose broken?" The nurse shook her head. "I thought there was a possibility at first, but it doesn't feel broken at all. Plus the bleeding wasn't that bad. You should be ok, but you ought to put a bandage on it- there's a nasty cut there that might get infected." Max nodded and did as the nurse said.

After the nurse checked her over, she was good to go. Max couldn't help but smile. She'd missed most of school, and was only there for two more boring periods. As she was leaving the school, she saw Fang, Dylan, and Sam run out. She saw one of her old friends, Iggy, run up to them and saw them smirk. Curious, she followed. She heard their voices drifting towards her, but could hardly make them out.

"Iggy, you got the guns?" Fang said. "Yeah," Iggy said, "fully loaded. Guys this'll be so cool, we'll be like those bad-ass guys in the movies!" Dylan rolled his eyes. "Nah, I don't care about being like a guy in a movie, I just want revenge on some people." Sam shrugged and said, "I'm only doing this 'cause you guys are. No other reason."

Max could tell from this that they were starting a shooting. She felt her heart ache for Fang, but she willed it not to. She didn't want to get involved. She just stood there and thought, 'Why, Fang, why? Why would you do something so stupid? What happened to that day 7 years ago, when we sat in the tree, with nothing like this to worry about?' Shaking her head, she found herself following them.

They were headed for the beach. She felt her heart speed up and so did her legs. The end of the school year was nearing, and many people were taking trips to the now warm beach. So many lives would be at risk. Max felt like she had to stop it, but had no idea how. She ran quietly after them until they got to the beach, then she stopped and watched, scared to do anything, but knowing deep down that helping was the right thing to do. She watched as they pulled out the guns, heard the soft clicks as they turned the safety off, then she heard bangs, one from each gun. _Bang, bang, bang, bang. _

Screams erupted from the people at the beach and they started running frantically. She watched as the Gang ran around, shooting at random. 'Idiots, this is totally pointless!' Max thought. She was going to run away like everyone else when she noticed something. Dylan was laughing and his gun was pointed at Fang, but he didn't seem to realize. He was just blabbing to Sam. She saw his finger slide towards the trigger.

The world seemed to go in slow motion.

_Click._

Max ran forward.

_Click._

Max leaped in front of Fang.

_Bang._

Max felt a searing pain in her shoulder, near her chest. She fell to her knees and stared at the ground which seemed to be spinning away from her. She felt sick, but nothing was coming up. She thought one thing before blacking out from the dizziness that followed her extreme pain.

'I kept my promise.'

_Fang_

Fang didn't realize it until right as it was happening. Dylan was talking to Sam and his arms were crossed, so his gun was pointed at Fang. He started laughing and the gun slipped. Dylan's finger hit the trigger. Fang heard a click and he saw Max out of the corner of his eye. 'What? Max?' Max had totally caught him off-guard! He went to move out of the way of the gun but there was no time.

He heard a bang and expected to feel a sharp pain. But he didn't. Instead, he saw Max fall to her knees in front of him, then fall face-down on the sand, the yellowish color turning crimson from her blood. "No…" he said in disbelief. "Max… you… this isn't real… this can't be real! This… this is all just one of my crazy dreams. You'd never actually keep your promise…" He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Sam. "SAM, MAN! I never should have joined your STUPID gang! This was a STUPID idea! Look what happened! We were nine! This wasn't supposed to happen! Not now! Not ever! She wasn't supposed to keep it…wasn't… supposed… to keep it…"

He didn't realize he had been hyperventilating until he fell over, passing out. He had one thought before he fell to the ground, one thought that made his words stop tumbling, because he had to accept the truth.

'She kept her promise.'

**A/N Haha, cliffhanger! So, I hope you guys like this fanfiction. I know you're probably all like, Hey, Max was friggen nine and had no reason to make that promise or, Hey, they have no reason for shooting, but they doooo. This fanfic ISN'T OVER! I am extremely motivated. I love writing this so much.**

**Sorry to all of my wonderful Unexpected Savior fans. I got serious writer's block and I'm not sure I want to finish it… COME ON GUYS, GUILT TRIP ME, MAKE ME WANT TO FINISH IT LOL! But this one I'm determined to work on frequently! So stay tuned for updates!**

**~Leafdrift**


	4. Chapter3: Recovery

**Chapter 3: Recovery**

_Fang_

Fang awoke soon after he passed out. He looked at Max, bleeding on the ground and screamed at Sam and Dylan. "WELL?" he snapped, "AREN'T YOU GUYS GOING TO DO ANYTHING?" Sam shifted nervously under Fang's frightening glare, but Dylan just glared back. "Max is a worthless piece of crap, Fang; of course I'm not going to do anything for her." Fang gaped at him. He and Dylan were friends, weren't they? Max just took a bullet for him. So even though Dylan didn't like Max, shouldn't he still feel gratitude?

Then it dawned on Fang.

"Dylan… you DISGUSTING creature, you were never my friend! You lied, didn't you? You lied just to get me to join your stupid gang and become your best friend and leave Max behind. You w_anted _something like this to happen."

Dylan smirked. "Look at you, Fang. What a clever boy! You're on the right track. But the truth is I was never going to leave Max behind. No, I just didn't want you two to become a thing. I wanted Max for myself. But I don't care now, you can have her, she's not worth my time."

Fang's eye twitched and he punched Dylan hard in the face. "YOU JERK!" he yelled, glaring down at Dylan who now lay on the ground. "You're a monster." He snarled.

Then Fang turned to Sam and said in a soft, dark voice. "What about you?" Sam looked at Fang and muttered, "I only joined the whole gang thing in the first place because Dylan forced me to. I don't want to be doing this, and when you passed out, I was too scared of Dylan to take Max to the hospital."

Fang nodded and kicked Dylan in the gut. "That's for what you did to Sam." Then he turned his attention back to Sam. "We have to get Max to the hospital, _now._" Sam nodded and Fang picked up Max, running as fast as he could towards the hospital since they didn't have a car. Sam ran slightly ahead of him. Luckily the hospital wasn't too far, so Sam quickly ran in when they got there and said breathlessly to the woman at the front desk, "Friend… shot… in… chest…"

The woman looked up and saw Fang holding a bleeding Max and her eyes widened. She nodded quickly and went off for a moment. She came back and soon after a nurse with a stretcher came out. Fang put Max on the stretcher and walked briskly beside them as they went down hallway after hallway. Eventually, Fang was stopped. A woman with mousy gray hair and bright blue eyes looked at Fang. "You can't come any further. I'm sorry, but if you go out to the waiting room we'll tell you when you can see her."

Fang looked like he was going to protest for a moment, but instead he just nodded and walked to the waiting room where he sat down by Sam. "Well?" Sam asked. Fang just shook his head. "They made me come out here. I don't know what's going to happen." Sam placed a hand on Fang's shoulder in silence, and they sat and waited for the nurse to come tell them they could see Max.

**PaGe BrEaK**

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, the nurse came in and nodded to Fang, a smile on her face. Fang stood up in silence and followed the lady to Max's room. When he got in, he pulled up a chair by her bed and sat there. The nurse said softly, "We had to give her some medicine to make her continue to sleep so that we could remove the bullet without giving her any pain. She should wake up soon."

Fang nodded and the nurse left. He waited. And he waited. And he waited. Until he finally drifted off into a sort of half-sleep.

_Max_

Max opened her eyes about half way and saw that she was in a hospital. 'What am I doing here?' she thought, she looked around a bit and saw Fang asleep in a chair by the bed. She tried to sit up a little to get into a more comfortable position when she felt a sharp pain in her chest near her shoulder. 'Huh?' she thought. Then she remembered. 'I took a bullet for him. But how did I get here? Shouldn't I be dead?'

Just as she thought that she saw Fang stir slightly. He blinked a bit then looked at Max and pulled her into a tight hug. Max winced, feeling the pain again and squeaked, "OW!" Fang immediately let go and said, "S-sorry. I was just really worried about you."

Max stared at him. "You were worried about me?" Then she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right, I'm sure you were really worried about me." Fang sighed. "I was! Dylan lied to me Max… I wish I'd never done the things that I did. I wish I could erase the past. But I can't. I'm stuck with it. Can you please forgive me?"

Max looked at him questioningly for a moment before she said, "A little. I'm not willing to completely forgive you yet, Fang. You have a lot of wrongdoing you need to make up for first. But I won't totally hate you now."

Fang's face brightened up in a big smile. "Thank you thank you thank you Max!" he exclaimed, hugging her again, this time, being careful not to cause her any pain. Max sighed and gently returned the hug.

"Now," Fang said, "you should get some rest." She nodded, but before she could make herself comfortable, she felt Fang tap her shoulder. She looked up and saw that he had a wide smile on his face. She looked at him, confusion swimming in her eyes, and his smile widened. "Hey, Max," he said, "you kept your promise."

Max looked down, blushing, and mumbled, "Yeah, well, I don't break my promises." She shrugged a little, refusing to meet Fang's gaze. Fang just smirked and sat back. "Now get your sleep." He said, "I won't interrupt this time."

**A/N OK SO, I'm going to camp this week and won't be able to update this until Saturday just a heads up guys! And also, this is far from over! There's still gonna be Dylan troubles and all that WONDERFUL stuff, plus Max still has to fully forgive Fang! So STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES!**


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